Hempel leads the 'green' revolution
Hempel details the progess it is making in its commitment to a greener environment and safer products.
01 December 2001
Hempel is pressing ahead with a drive to make its paints and production processes cleaner and greener, in an effort to reduce global environmental and chemical pollution.
"Hempel's new corporate policy is to substantially reduce known hazardous substances from its paints and the group is working with suppliers to substitute harmful raw materials with those that safeguard health and the environment," a spokesman for the Danish group says.
He continues: "Hempel has initiated several other environmental measures such as the reduction of solvent emissions and noise levels at its production units and has assigned a national environmental management team at each Hempel company to co-ordinate health, safety and environmental activities at the local level."
"Also, Hempel aims to see more green-friendly paints and coatings being used on the market and hopes to achieve this by promoting consumer awareness and updating coating specifications."
Hempel's policy calls for ensuring compliance with all relevant international and local regulations and supplementing them with international standards where necessary, the spokesman says.
It includes optimising the use of resources through re-use, recycling and consumption reduction and engaging in open discussions and projects on health, safety and environmental issues internally as well as externally.
Elaborating on the need to use greener and cleaner paints, the spokesman says: "There is a lot to be said for tried and tested traditional coating systems, which have proved their performance over the years, giving long-term protection to assets in marine, industrial, construction and critical-needs processing environments.
"Traditional systems offer a feeling of safety in the selection of coating systems. However, in specific cases, this feeling may only relate to confidence in its performance, rather than the overall implications on safety.
"The issues of health and safety and environmental effects and economic costs are quite a complex matter as there are many variables, but that there is a growing awareness of them within organisations.
"A classic example of the complexity of the real costs of traditional paint systems is red lead and zinc chromate primers, which are mainly used for protection against corrosion. These products use toxic substances such as lead and chromate for pigmentation, which put both the manufacturing operator and coatings applicator at risk.
"The use of personal protective equipment can limit their risk of exposure, but there are subsequent risks that are not so easy to manage or control. For instance, consider the risks involved in maintaining such systems a few years down the line. By this time there would have been some abrasion or sanding of the existing paintwork, and this would have created dry paint dirt, which is very harmful if inhaled by accident, and will contaminate the environment.
"There is a significantly greater risk when removing old coatings that contain lead through a shot-blasting process as the paint particles would represent a significant health hazard. The only safe way would be to fully recover the old paint system and dispose of it as hazardous waste.
"Non-toxic alternatives are somewhat more expensive than lead-containing systems. However, if the overall costs are considered, the apparently cheaper system would in fact prove to be a false economy, actually being quite expensive in the long run.
"This is one specific example, but there are others. Take the more general case of VOCs (volatile organic contents), which are usually solvents in coatings. Different solvents pose varying degrees of risks and hazards to the environment and it is now accepted practice to limit the amount of solvents or VOCs released into the atmosphere. In many nations, there are regulations that drive the VOC-compliant coatings market to reduce emissions.
"One of the options is to develop higher solids versions of traditional paint systems and Hempel recently introduced an anti-fouling range called Globic which is not only 2003-compliant in terms of being tin-free, but also has significantly higher solids compared to traditional anti-foulants.
"Globic is more environmentally friendly than other anti-foulants as it does not release tin-based toxins in the ocean and much less solvents into the atmosphere.
"There a dramatic difference in VOC emissions from traditional anti-foulants and Hempel's Globic. For example, a 5,000 sq m area requiring an anti-foulant of 2 x 125 microns dft (dry film thickness) would use 40 per cent volume solids in the traditional system and 60 per cent in Globic - and this would lead to a doubling of emissions from the low-solids system (see diagram)."
"Hempel's technicians and researchers are thus taking up the challenge to stop polluting the environment and Hempel is well aware that unless serious measures are taken, we will suffer the effects, now and in the future," he adds.
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